Murray heads into Open with Brisbane win under his belt

WORLD No.3 Andy Murray has had the perfect preparation leading into the Australian Open after defending his Brisbane International title with a straight sets 7-6 (7-0), 6-4 win over up-and-coming Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

The win has the Scot off to a good start in 2013 following his breakthrough year in 2012 where he won his first grand slam title at the US Open, a gold medal at the London Olympics and finished the year on a career-high world ranking.

He was challenged in his first outing on Pat Rafter Arena by local qualifier John Millman, who pushed the 25-year-old to three sets, but came through the next two matches with relative ease.

The 48th-ranked Dimitrov, playing his first ATP tour final and rated by many as a future Grand Slam winner, did not go down without a fight, putting in an impressive performance to break the top seed early in the match and taking the first set to a tiebreak.

The 21-year-old also claimed the first break in the second set to go up 4-3, but Murray fired up to break back straight away before closing up in style.

In yesterday's doubles final, the unseeded pairing of Spaniard Tommy Robredo and Brazil's Marcelo Melo produced an upset 4-6, 6-1, 10-5 victory over top seeds, American Eric Butorac and Australia's Paul Hanley.